So as we know from the previous lectures, Thales is alive and an amnesic operating system.
What we mean by this is it leaves no traces on the computer that it gets used on.
And it does this by never using the internal storage.
It runs completely from the RAM, which is securely wiped.
Once you turn off or restart the computer, then when that computer boots it will boot into its default
operating system.
The system will work exactly the same way that it was working before, and even if the whole computer
gets inspected, there will be no traces of what you've done, and there will even be no traces of tails
being used on that computer.
Now this is a great feature that serves the main purpose of Thales.
So it improves security because even if someone manages to hack into that computer and install malware
or change the settings to compromise your privacy and anonymity, once you restart and boot into details,
everything will be removed because nothing can be stored on that system.
Not only that, but if you are dealing with sensitive files, you can do so without worrying about someone
being able to recover these files because they will never be stored on the system.
So these are great features that serve the main purpose of Thales, which is an operating system that
is designed to improve our anonymity and privacy.
But this feature is also a little bit inconvenient because, like we said, we cannot store anything
on the system.
So not only that we can store files and passwords or keys, which is something that we might want to
do.
We also can save any changes we make to any of the programs.
For example, if you configure the mail client or if you change it to our settings, or even if you
connect to a wi fi network, all of these settings will be removed and forgotten once you restart or
boot into Thales again.
So every time you boot entails, you'll have to go and connect to the network that you always connect
to.
You'll have to go and change the Tor browser settings.
If you change them, if you set up a mail client, you'll have to go and set it up again, which can
be a bit troublesome and take a bit of time.
Now, the solution to this is to enable persistence on tells.
Persistence allows us to store files, passwords, keys or program settings that we modify.
It does this by encrypting whatever that's left on the USB flash drive so it still doesn't use the internal
storage.
The internal storage will still remain untouched and it will only rely on the space remaining on that
USB stick.
It will encrypt that space to improve its security.
And then when you log in, you will have two options.
You can log in with the live default option where nothing is stored, or you can unlock the persistent
storage where you'll be able to store files in a specific directory, install programs, edit settings
and everything will be stored like any other operating system.
So with this, you'll be able to store files, passwords, keys.
Like I said, you'll be able to modify settings.
So if you connect to a network or if you log into a mail client, all of these settings will be stored.
So when you log in again, you won't have to do them again.
You'll also be able to install programs or browser plug ins and so on.
Now, the last two benefits are in red for a reason, because you need to be careful when you're doing
these things, because you need to keep in mind that those was made with security in mind.
So all of the programs that come preinstalled in it are configured in a way to protect your anonymity
and privacy.
Therefore, when you modify these settings, or if you install more programs, these new programs or
these modified settings might compromise your anonymity and privacy.
So only install programs or modify settings if you know what you're doing.
Not only that, but Tor and Thales work best when it is hard to distinguish between people that are
using these systems.
Therefore, when you modify settings or install extra programs, you're becoming more unique.
Therefore, it would be easier to detect you because you're more distinguishable than other users than
the people that are using Tor and Thales with the default settings.
So with keeping all of this in mind, in the next lecture, I'm going to show you how to enable persistence
on tails.